Harbaugh says he wants to “chase” the “one percent” advantage of not naming a starting QB publically

SANTA CLARA – Jim Harbaugh held a press conference Friday afternoon. Here’s what he said about the 49ers quarterback controversy.

Q: Any word yet on who your starting quarterback will be on Sunday?

HARBAUGH: No. We feel like there’s no competitive advantage for us to release the information.

ME: Is there a competitive advantage in not releasing the information?

HARBAUGH: Possibly. Maybe it’s one percent, a small percent.

ME: That’s significant?

HARBAUGH: We’ll chase that, sure. Just like for any position – we just do not get into what the role’s going to be, how we’re going to use them, the specifics.

Q: Do the quarterbacks know who the starter is?

HARBAUGH: No comment on that.

Q: Vernon Davis intimated that today would you would announce to the team who the starting quarterback is.

HARBAUGH: Again, this is not something we think is an advantage for us to talk about. You have your opinions on it. If it’s unorthodox, so be it. You can call me names if you want to. You can make sport of me. That’s the way we’re going to go about it.

Q: Has Alex been cleared?

HARBAUGH: Alex went through his final test today. He will be cleared tomorrow if there are no symptoms. It’s been good – he hasn’t had any symptoms since Tuesday. That’s a real positive.

Q: On Wednesday, there was a report that you had already spoken to Alex and told him, “I’m going with Kaepernick. Alex, I’m sorry.” Did that happen?

HARBAUGH: Not factual. I know there were probably a lot of reports out there. Some were brought to my attention. Didn’t see any that were factual.